Peer mentoring for newly arrived migrant pupils

Abstract European classrooms have become increasingly diverse, raising questions for schools about how to support newly arrived migrant (NAM) pupils as they navigate academic and social transitions. This paper is an explorative, qualitative study of peer mentoring programmes for NAM pupils in the Netherlands, Spain, and Ireland and presents a comparison of the countries’ mentoring program systems. It focuses on recognition, design, and perceived outcomes of these programmes. Despite the small number of surveyed teachers ( n = 47) and pupils ( n = 43) and an uneven distribution of teachers between the countries, a conclusion can be that peer mentoring is not widely recognised or implemented, partly due to a narrow conceptualization or misrecognition of peer mentoring. Among schools that implement mentoring, programmes vary in design but share a focus on social connection and academic support. They mostly rely on voluntary participation and intrinsic motivation and have little structure, training, compensation, and feedback. Teachers generally report positive perceived outcomes, while pupil responses showed strong individual variation. No consistent differences emerged between countries or education systems.